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MOLTO MARIO. God bless you, Mario Loyola of National Review. During these dark times, who will stand up to defend the Iraqi experiment in democracy? You will! To wit:
But as bad as the security situation is, I think Americans would feel differently if they knew the tenor of the political debate in Iraq -- how effectively every major issue is getting debated in the legislature, in the government, and in the press. Amidst all the violence, the democratic debate continues, and it is already sinking deep roots into the Iraqi psyche.Damn right! The Iraqi democratic process has yielded such prominent successes as the federalism bill, which a Shiite-dominated parliament pushed through over the strenuous objections of the Sunni minority. The Sunnis not-unreasonably see federalism as a means to deny them the resource wealth from Iraqi oil, and tried -- with help from Moqtada Sadr -- to stop the bill through a failed effort at preventing a quorum. Leading Sunni politician Adnan Dulaimi commented, "We hope there won't be an increase in violence." The democratic debate continues!
In one sense, of course, Mario is right: this push for raw sectarian advantage, a crucial step in entrenching the Iraqi civil war, was done entirely through the U.S.-sponsored political process. Iraqi democracy, or what passes for it, yielded this result. Mario apparently thinks this is a good thing, and this guy used to be a Pentagon consultant. He says that "the benefit of having a democratic ally in the heart of the Middle East will prove priceless long into the future," which is true, if he's talking about Iran. For us, it's more like a pitiful, bloody nightmare.
--Spencer Ackerman